This invention relates generally to safety equipment for boating use, and more particularly for use on sailboats. More specifically, the invention relates to such apparatus for rescuing persons overboard and simplifying the recovery of such persons.
The loss of persons overboard has long been a danger associated with boating activities. In the best of conditions, with warm water and calm seas, it is generally possible to recover such persons either through the use of boarding ladders or by assistance of those on board. For lifting the persons aboard in such conditions, one technique used with sailboats has employed a sail-hoisting halyard for attaching to a safety harness or sling worn by the person overboard, with the use of a winch in conjunction with that halyard for hoisting the persons aboard. Such technique, however, requires either the availability of a spare halyard, or that at least one of the sails be dropped and secured to free a halyard for such use. Further, in rough seas the rolling and pitching of the boat may cause wild gyrations of the mast head from which the halyard extends, thus causing severe jerking and large scale movement of the halyard. Such movement may render it difficult to get the halyard to the person in the water, and, if successful, may subsequently result in slamming that person against the side of the boat during the recovery process. This technique, as well as the use of boarding ladders, requires substantial physical exertion by the person being rescued. If the water is cold, as is often the case in oceans, or if the person is only partially conscious, rescue efforts using these techniques may be totally frustrated.
Where seas are relatively calm and the person in the water disabled, it is also known to maneuver a portion of the sail, while still attached to the boom and halyard, under the person in the water to form a sling to lift the person aboard. Obviously such a technique can be extremely impractical and highly dangerous in situations in which there is substantial wind blowing.
Other known apparatus includes structures such as davits permanently affixed to both decks and carrying a rescue sling and rope for use by the person overboard. While such apparatus performs satisfactorily on power boats, the extremely limited deck space and potential interference with sails, particularly large overlapping jibs, render such structure completely unsuited for use on most sailboats. Accordingly, most sailboats carry only throwable flotation devices, frequently attached to marker buoys, and have little if any provision for bringing a person aboard in hostile conditions. This problem is particularly acute in larger sailboats in which the desk may be six to eight feet above the water, thus making it virtually impossible to reach the person in the water directly.